Growing, Preserving, and Composting at Community Garden in Gridley

Among community gardens in Butte County, The Garden at St. Timothy’s community garden in 
Gridley is notable in offering people a full-circle experience in growing food, gleaning and preserving 
food, and composting food waste.
The Garden at St. Timothy’s, located at 450 Jackson Street in Gridley next door to St. Timothy’s 
Episcopal Church, opened to the public in 2023 with 20 newly-built garden beds for rent. Plots are 
affordably priced at 50 cents per square foot per year, with the cost of water included, and the garden 
space is open year-round. The church wanted to offer the community a garden both useful and 
beautiful, to encourage people to participate in caring for creation by growing food with their 
neighbors, thereby increasing food security in Butte County. 
Now almost fully rented and with 13 gardeners on board, The Garden at St. Timothy’s has 
grown into an active community of gardeners and volunteers who meet monthly to learn more about 
gardening and enjoy each other’s company, as well as support and direct operations not only of the 
garden, but also the composting and food preserving programs. Garden meetings are usually the 
second Saturday of the month at 10:00 am and always open to the public; all are welcome.
Recent improvements to the garden include completion of a sturdy, 16-foot by 8-foot 
greenhouse, funded by a grant from Episcopal Foundation of Northern California. Gardeners got 
together in February to plant seeds in pots and seed trays, which have produced an abundance of 
seedling plants: tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and flowers for the garden and for giving away to the 
community. Another exciting addition to the garden is an espalier structure for fruit trees, so that the 
2 limbs of the trees are trellised, much like grapevines, for efficient use of the garden space. Email St.Timothygarden@gmail.com or call Grace at 530 218-6636 for more informaioon.
As an outgrowth of the garden, Preserving Food with Friends (the food preserving program)
came about because gardeners wanted to learn how to preserve the food they grow or glean locally. 
Instructors Kathy Mahannah, Briana Swanson and Grace Mahannah all completed UC Master Food 
Preserver training in Sacramento County in 2024, prior to launching Preserving Food with Friends at St. 
Timothy’s. 
The program features demonstrations of safe, research-based preserving techniques including 
steam and boiling water canning of jams and other fruit spreads, pie fillings, tomato products and 
vinegar pickles; pressure canning of low acid vegetables, meats and soups; fermentation for pickling 
vegetables and sauerkraut; and dehydration of fruit and vegetable products and meat jerky. Classes 
highlight Butte County’s seasonal produce throughout the year and meet at St. Timothy’s Episcopal 
Church (410 Jackson Street, Gridley) on the first Saturday of every month except December.
Preserving Food with Friends has grown steadily since its launch in June 2024 and is now 
transitioning to hands-on classes where attendees can fully participate in preserving foods. Under the 
supervision of instructors, participants who want to try their hand at food preserving will be able to 
complete a project from start to finish during a two-hour class. 
The program hopes to accommodate as many hands-on participants as possible, but space is 
limited and first come, first served. Those who want to try the hands-on experience should sign in early, 
but everyone who attends will receive a complete demonstration including a packet of recipes and 
information. Classes are always free, and all are welcome.

Participant feedback about Preserving Food with Friends has been overwhelmingly positive. 
Classes are friendly and fun, and attendees appreciate the opportunity to learn or rediscover 
techniques for preserving food that they remember from their mother’s or grandmother’s genera3on. 
As one recent attendee stated, “Everything was fantastic! Perfect day learning to preserve. . . . 
I’m leaving today knowing I can do this! I hope to share what I learned with friends and plan to make 
jam with kids and berries from our garden.” The Preserving Food with Friends schedule for 2025 can be 
found on Facebook  and this website; upcoming classes include Kosher dill pickles in June and preserving stone fruits 
(peaches, plums, apricots) in July. For more information, email preservingfoodwithfriends@gmail.com
or call Kathy at 530 777-8469.
Another outgrowth of The Garden at St. Timothy’s is the Drop in the Bucket composting 
program, which began in 2023 with help from Butte Environmental Council (BEC). People in the 
community save kitchen scraps (fruit and vegetable scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds, paper napkins) 
and drop them off at the garden to be composted. 
The program expanded in 2024 to include four compost bins, helped along by a generous grant 
from CalRecycle administered by California Alliance for Community Composting. All finished compost is 
used right at the garden or offered for free to those who donate kitchen scraps. Drop in the Bucket is a 
working example of urban composting on a small scale: diverting organic waste from the landfill while 
creating healthy compost for community use. To sign up, go to www.becnet.org/composting and scroll 
down to find the link to Gridley, or call Grace at 530 218-6636.
From growing food to preserving seasonal produce to composting food waste, The Garden at St. 
Timothy’s takes a full-circle approach to caring for nature and feeding people. Above all, the garden has 
gathered a kind and generous community of people who help one another learn and share what they 
grow and what they know. Visitors are always welcome and volunteers are always needed; The Garden 
at St. Timothy’s is always open, so come by and take a look!